It's been a rather tough week for me... Somehow feels like all energy has been drained outta my body, sapped away... Many people ask me the same question, "Are you alright? Is anything troubling you? Are you stressed? Are you sad? Tell me your problems... etc etc". I guess I have a face that tells it all... I am not troubled by anything in particular. I am just extremely tired... Probably used up too much of my brain cells and my body ain't used to it. Hahaha!
Perhaps one of the stress points is my business trip next week... One full week in Taiwan, plus my bosses going with me, and I am still not very familiar with the place, and language-wise, I have lots to learn... Business trips are always stressful... Thank God He is always encoouraging me to press on.
It is never easy to persevere in something (especially when it is God's will). It is always difficult to do things that I can't but God says I can. Well, if He says I can and He has opened all the doors needed for me to "can", then I have to press on till I see the fruits of my labour. I am results-oriented, so when I don't see immediate results/outcome but have to plough and sow and grow in the (long) meantime, it can get very challenging for me. Lord, thank You for always reminding me of all the things You have done to place me where I am today... That very fact keeps me going.
On Tue, I met up with Coconut, my secondary school friend. We had a GREAT time grousing, moaning, complaining, encouraging, supporting each other... It's such a wonderful fact that we are not just great long-time friends, but we are sisters-in-Christ as well... Here's one for you my dear friend! And thanks for being there!
Well, that's about it for now... You've always been a great audience!
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Sunday, July 23, 2006
I surVived!!!!
Phew, it's over! At least for the 1st Module... and I survived... It feels unreal, cos' I never thought this day could come... I am not a very academic person, not the most intellectual sort... So, for me to be doing my Masters with such intensity sounded unthinkable... But by His Grace, I have come thus far...
I must say that for the past 2 weeks, He has been with me, sustaining me, keeping my eyes from closing during class, encouraging and cheering me on everyday. Thank You Abba Father. And every day that I go for class, I relish in the fact that He placed me there... He has a great plan for me, and I am humbled by that fact. Exams was on Thur, Fri and Sat. Even after just the 1st paper - Capital markets, I felt a great sense of relief. FSA (Financial Statement Analysis) was a killer as expected, and the scene in the classroom was tickling... Everyone was buried under a huge load of papers and frantically flipping pages and notes to find some clues to the answers (all our exams were open-book). On Sat, we had a celebration after our Quantitative paper at the Graduates Lounge with wine and Relief as the Guest of Honour. After that, our group - A+ Limited and some other classmates went for dinner at Jumbo at Clarke Quay.
My classmates are fun, especially the one who asks the funniest questions and crack the whole class up with them. Yup, to the "earth- preciation" guy, here's One for you!
And the other 2 who always mispronounce my lovely name, and using the excuse of "closeness" to get away with it. here's One for you too!
The 2 weeks were super intensive and we were all shocked by it, but I must say that the camaradarie was enjoyable. Like I was telling them, for the past 2 weeks, no one else, other than one another, can truly understand what we went through, so I guess that makes it a shared experience, and shared experiences make friends. So my friends, we have 5 more modules (including Switzerland) to go, so let's be best of friends man!
It is my privilege to be in a class of really credible and smart people. More so, I enjoy the diversity of nationalities and cultures in the class, not mentioning the variety of professional backgrounds and experiences. So, despite the torture of intensive studying, I enjoyed the people most.
It's back to work tomorrow. What a chore... but I look forward to Friday when we meet again... without the books and exams! HOORAY!!!
I must say that for the past 2 weeks, He has been with me, sustaining me, keeping my eyes from closing during class, encouraging and cheering me on everyday. Thank You Abba Father. And every day that I go for class, I relish in the fact that He placed me there... He has a great plan for me, and I am humbled by that fact. Exams was on Thur, Fri and Sat. Even after just the 1st paper - Capital markets, I felt a great sense of relief. FSA (Financial Statement Analysis) was a killer as expected, and the scene in the classroom was tickling... Everyone was buried under a huge load of papers and frantically flipping pages and notes to find some clues to the answers (all our exams were open-book). On Sat, we had a celebration after our Quantitative paper at the Graduates Lounge with wine and Relief as the Guest of Honour. After that, our group - A+ Limited and some other classmates went for dinner at Jumbo at Clarke Quay.
My classmates are fun, especially the one who asks the funniest questions and crack the whole class up with them. Yup, to the "earth- preciation" guy, here's One for you!
And the other 2 who always mispronounce my lovely name, and using the excuse of "closeness" to get away with it. here's One for you too!
The 2 weeks were super intensive and we were all shocked by it, but I must say that the camaradarie was enjoyable. Like I was telling them, for the past 2 weeks, no one else, other than one another, can truly understand what we went through, so I guess that makes it a shared experience, and shared experiences make friends. So my friends, we have 5 more modules (including Switzerland) to go, so let's be best of friends man!
It is my privilege to be in a class of really credible and smart people. More so, I enjoy the diversity of nationalities and cultures in the class, not mentioning the variety of professional backgrounds and experiences. So, despite the torture of intensive studying, I enjoyed the people most.
It's back to work tomorrow. What a chore... but I look forward to Friday when we meet again... without the books and exams! HOORAY!!!
Saturday, July 15, 2006
A breather...
Man, it has been one of the most trying and challenging weeks of my life. Even during my school years for about 20 years of my life, nothing compares to these 2 weeks. My course is SO intensive, no one (except) my classmates can believe or imagine. Gosh, the concentration is so needed at every moment of the lectures because the moment you miss out something, it is quite hard to catch up. My classes are daily from 830a - 7p, 3 blocks of 3 hrs. And Econs is my killer.
Every single day I wake up, asking God to sustain me and give me wisdom and knowledge for the day. Every single night, my heart wells up with thanksgiving to Him for bringing me through the day. On one hand, the intensity of the course is really dreadful. (Like one of my classmates said, he asks himself "Why?" - as in why did he apply for this course, every morning.) On the other hand, I am so charged up by the mere sense of passing each challenging day. Every day I tell myself that before I know it, next weekend will come and I would have cleared Module 1. But of course, when I do not understand my Econs lecture and the IS-LM (worse still, the AS-AD) curves, and struggle during certain parts of Quantative (aka Statistics), my heart grouses and is discouraged. And for the records, I come home every night, and try my best to do some reading, just to catch up on that day's lectures/study for my pop quizzes.
It didn't help that my body crashed on the 2nd day - had a bad bout of cold and flu: stuffed nose AND runny at the same time, bad throat, headache. Gosh, in that condition, trying to grasp the IS-LM curves were like understanding Marsians. I even asked the Holy Spirit to "cover me" during my bouts of losing my brain in the thick of the lectures. Thank You Holy Spirit.
The good thing about my course is the classmates. With people from mostly Asia, diversity is quite evident. And thank God for my group - A+ Limited, who stayed late on Fri crunching the ratios and numbers for our FSA (Financial Statement Analysis) group assignment. It was a fun time!
Well, all in all, I have my fair share of grousing and complaints about this week, mainly cos I have never studied SO hard and SO intensively in my life, and intellectually and mentally, it's extremely challenging. But on the whole, I thank God that I am even doing this - that He made a way for me to get into this course, and that I survived the 1st week, i.e, half of Module 1. Oh, and of course, the not-too-bad pop quizzes for Cap Markets (esp the 2nd one, which I miraculously calcultaed the correct figures, Praise the Lord!). You rock, God!
Ok, now it's time to hit the books again... IS-LM, here I come!!!
Every single day I wake up, asking God to sustain me and give me wisdom and knowledge for the day. Every single night, my heart wells up with thanksgiving to Him for bringing me through the day. On one hand, the intensity of the course is really dreadful. (Like one of my classmates said, he asks himself "Why?" - as in why did he apply for this course, every morning.) On the other hand, I am so charged up by the mere sense of passing each challenging day. Every day I tell myself that before I know it, next weekend will come and I would have cleared Module 1. But of course, when I do not understand my Econs lecture and the IS-LM (worse still, the AS-AD) curves, and struggle during certain parts of Quantative (aka Statistics), my heart grouses and is discouraged. And for the records, I come home every night, and try my best to do some reading, just to catch up on that day's lectures/study for my pop quizzes.
It didn't help that my body crashed on the 2nd day - had a bad bout of cold and flu: stuffed nose AND runny at the same time, bad throat, headache. Gosh, in that condition, trying to grasp the IS-LM curves were like understanding Marsians. I even asked the Holy Spirit to "cover me" during my bouts of losing my brain in the thick of the lectures. Thank You Holy Spirit.
The good thing about my course is the classmates. With people from mostly Asia, diversity is quite evident. And thank God for my group - A+ Limited, who stayed late on Fri crunching the ratios and numbers for our FSA (Financial Statement Analysis) group assignment. It was a fun time!
Well, all in all, I have my fair share of grousing and complaints about this week, mainly cos I have never studied SO hard and SO intensively in my life, and intellectually and mentally, it's extremely challenging. But on the whole, I thank God that I am even doing this - that He made a way for me to get into this course, and that I survived the 1st week, i.e, half of Module 1. Oh, and of course, the not-too-bad pop quizzes for Cap Markets (esp the 2nd one, which I miraculously calcultaed the correct figures, Praise the Lord!). You rock, God!
Ok, now it's time to hit the books again... IS-LM, here I come!!!
Sunday, July 09, 2006
School's REALLY starting tomorrow...
Last week was only half a week of Prep course (Intro to Stats, Accounting, Portfolio Management, etc). And it was only a prelude to what is to come... I saw this week's schedule; i choked and had phobia already... It's full days, from 830am till 7pm. GOSH, I left school for 7 years already! Have mercy on me....
I am really challenged to do my best... Well, today Ps Jeff shared what it means by grieving the Holy Spirit. It is hearing the Holy Spirit and not obeying His Voice... Sigh, now, that challenged me even more... I felt God tell me in the midst of my class last week that I should really put in A LOT of effort in my studies, and to be the best that i can be - ALL for His Glory. That sounds like a really good proposition when I first heard it, but it immediately struck that MY part of the good proposition is that I got to really study HARD. See, I am a lazy person; I LURVE to play. Studying is really not my forte. But I know that being the head, not the tail, being the BEST in studies, at work, is glorifying Him. So, I still struggle, cos I am always afraid of committing, saying Yes, and not being able to fulfill it. I hate to be a loser. But I guess when I put in all my best efforts and the results do not turn out the way I expect it to be, it is still glorifying Him. Glorifying Him, I guess, is not just scoring and being 1st, but it's the process of excellence.
A lot of self-control has to come into play in all these things. Self-control is playing less, and studying more. Man, I feel that the theme for the rest-of-the-year is Put in Effort, Give your best - Glory to Him. Simple, yet so difficult to do, cos it's me.
I love Hope Church Singapore. It's my Family. And I do miss Ps Ben who's away ministering in our US churches. I guess that's one of the tell-tale signs that this church is my Family.
God be with me in these 2 weeks...
I am really challenged to do my best... Well, today Ps Jeff shared what it means by grieving the Holy Spirit. It is hearing the Holy Spirit and not obeying His Voice... Sigh, now, that challenged me even more... I felt God tell me in the midst of my class last week that I should really put in A LOT of effort in my studies, and to be the best that i can be - ALL for His Glory. That sounds like a really good proposition when I first heard it, but it immediately struck that MY part of the good proposition is that I got to really study HARD. See, I am a lazy person; I LURVE to play. Studying is really not my forte. But I know that being the head, not the tail, being the BEST in studies, at work, is glorifying Him. So, I still struggle, cos I am always afraid of committing, saying Yes, and not being able to fulfill it. I hate to be a loser. But I guess when I put in all my best efforts and the results do not turn out the way I expect it to be, it is still glorifying Him. Glorifying Him, I guess, is not just scoring and being 1st, but it's the process of excellence.
A lot of self-control has to come into play in all these things. Self-control is playing less, and studying more. Man, I feel that the theme for the rest-of-the-year is Put in Effort, Give your best - Glory to Him. Simple, yet so difficult to do, cos it's me.
I love Hope Church Singapore. It's my Family. And I do miss Ps Ben who's away ministering in our US churches. I guess that's one of the tell-tale signs that this church is my Family.
God be with me in these 2 weeks...
Sunday, July 02, 2006
School: a once-upon-a-time revived
man, feels kinda weird that I am going to school tomorrow.... all over again...
I am preparing my pencil-case with my coloured pens, getting all my original certificates, my transcripts, etc. So funny... it's really like going back to school.... all the registration and administrative stuffs i have to do tomorrow... Interesting...
in the meantime, I just did something I have never done before... those techie stuff that I am not good at. I downloaded some stuffs so I can chat with HanLong and actually SEE him on webcam! Man, it was surreal... technology is amazing!! really closes up the distance...
Back to school-tomorrow... don't really know what to expect... so will just go with the flow and enjoy being a student again.
I am hungry... and I am having a GREAT time chatting and watching HanLong! thank God for technology.
I am preparing my pencil-case with my coloured pens, getting all my original certificates, my transcripts, etc. So funny... it's really like going back to school.... all the registration and administrative stuffs i have to do tomorrow... Interesting...
in the meantime, I just did something I have never done before... those techie stuff that I am not good at. I downloaded some stuffs so I can chat with HanLong and actually SEE him on webcam! Man, it was surreal... technology is amazing!! really closes up the distance...
Back to school-tomorrow... don't really know what to expect... so will just go with the flow and enjoy being a student again.
I am hungry... and I am having a GREAT time chatting and watching HanLong! thank God for technology.
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